Officials: Monomoy busing not in the cards, right now

Friday

Dec 8, 2017 at 3:01 AM

By Jeff Blanchard

Forced busing of Harwich children to Chatham Elementary School is not in the works, but it is in the air as a subject for discussion and debate among the stakeholders as a way to balance the numbers that favor Harwich.

The Monomoy Regional School Committee met Nov. 30 with both towns’ board of selectmen, and in the end it was generally agreed that the idea of making some students attend elementary school in another town is something to be avoided for now.

Peace was maintained throughout, voices were never raised and order never had to be restored, but there were some moments at the meeting that reflected the seriousness of the busing issue in terms of its ability to divide a community, an especially precarious place for these two towns just five years into their Monomoy Regional School District marriage.

As district superintendent Scott Carpenter said earlier this fall, “Harwich is bursting at the seams.” At the same time, he said during a previous enrollment report to the boards of selectmen, elementary student totals fell by 12 percent in Chatham and nearly 3 percent in Harwich since last year.

Chatham Elementary has 244 students, with an average class size of 15.8 (range 14-19 across K-4). Harwich Elementary has 552 students, with an average class size of 17.4 (range 16.2-18.5 across K-4).

“Times change,” Chatham Selectman Jeffrey Dykens said at the joint meeting last week.

“I’m not in favor of forcing Harwich kids to go to school in Chatham,” said committee member Sharon Stout, whose teaching career included jobs at both elementary schools.

Although the committee is required to plan in five-year intervals, there is nothing to prevent the five-year plan from being changed in a year, she added.

Nothing about the imbalance between Chatham and Harwich elementary-aged students is causing any major problems, but that it might in the future is why the district raised the issue with parents this fall, in a survey that drew nearly 500 responses, Carpenter said.

The survey presented three options.

One was to do nothing.

Another was to amend the regional agreement to allow the school committee the flexibility in the future to bus some elementary-aged students from Harwich to Chatham Elementary. In this “redistricting” scenario, a few neighborhoods in Harwich would be identified, generally those closer to Chatham Elementary School, and the children from these neighborhoods would be required to attend school in Chatham.

A third option was to amend the regional agreement to allow the school committee the flexibility to create a system with an “upper” and “lower” elementary school. This would mean that all elementary-aged students attend both Chatham Elementary and Harwich Elementary at some point during their elementary years.

Any changes to the district agreement would have to go before town meeting in both communities.

To school committee Chairman Nancy Scott, the discussion “is purely a starting point,” a way to avoid springing “hot button issues” such as busing and property ownership on a public unaware.

The committee recognized a prevailing imbalance between populations at the elementary level but has yet to decide whether it needs to be addressed, or how, she said.

Stout agreed, and said “I don’t see a problem now in need of change.”

One other possible revision to the district’s official agreement was discussed; the notion of changing the rules regarding building ownership as a way of more accurately reflecting each town’s use of a building.

For example, Chatham elementary is nearly all Chatham students but Harwich taxpayers would contribute the lion’s share of a hypothetical roof replacement.